EDF - Disabled sports

In 2009, the Group signed the 8th social agreement which provided for the recruitment of 240 disabled employees over 2009-2012.

The Group also expresses its support for the disabled by encouraging sport for everyone. As a long-standing partner of the French Federation of Sport for the Disabled (Fédération Française Handisport - FFH), EDF has worked for the past 17 years to promote and develop disabled sports, anarea that still receives too little media coverage. We are also involved in organising major events, such as the EDF Handisport Meetings, and providing certain high-level disabled athletes with financial support and equipment. Some of these athletes include Emeric Martin, Laurent François and Cyril Moré, all multi-Olympic medal winners employed by EDF.

Moreover, EDF serves the FFH and the disabled sports movement through its vast technological expertise; the Handifix system for wheelchair fencing, for example, a device that allows competitors to fix their chairs to the track, was developed by EDF researchers.

EDF’s core values of team spirit, performance, working together, personal achievement, and respect for individuals closely mirror those of the Olympic movement.  

This partnership with the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français – CNOSF) is part of a long-term commitment to promoting the Olympic disciplines, encouraging as many people as possible to adopt the Olympic ideal and raise everyone's awareness of environmental and social responsibility issues.
As the official partner of the CNOF since 2000, EDF’s brings to sport the support of a major European energy company with a significant commitment to sustainable development and combating climate change. The entire Group is rallying around this commitment in the run-up to the forthcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, for which EDF is the official sponsor and sustainability partner.

Diversity and performance are probably the words which best describe TEAM EDF: this team comprises both disabled and able-bodied athletes sponsored by EDF such as Alain Bernard and Tony Estanguet and employee athletes such as Emeric Martin and Jean Christophe Bette, both Olympic and Paralympic champions.

As a socially responsible company, EDF is one of the major companies leading the way in France on the vocational integration of disabled people. In terms of sport, this support means a commitment to encouraging sport for everyone.

We support the disabled sports by contributing to the creation of major national events, such as the EDF disabled sports meetings aimed a raising public awareness of disabled sports and promoting contact between disabled and able-bodied athletes in a fun and convivial environment.

We facilitate the vocational integration of disabled athletes in our Group in enabling them to reconcile the competing demands of a sporting career with their professional lives. Currently some six disabled athletes are employed by EDF, including Emeric Martin, Laurent François, and Cyril Moré, all Paralympic multiple-medal winners.

In addition to its partnership with the French disabled sports federation which dates back to 1992 and support for the vocational integration of top-level athletes, EDF contributes its technological expertise to the design of equipment to be used in competition and training. The ‘Handifix’ system enabling wheelchair fencers to fix their chairs to the floor is just one example of the equipment designed by the Group’s research teams.

In order to pursue its commitment to the disabled sports movement, the Group has chosen to be the official sponsor and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Other than its commitment to promoting sport, EDF also gets involved in concrete initiatives to facilitate the daily lives of disabled people: access-friendly Bleu Ciel d'EDF branches for its customers, research and development, disability think tanks, and action to foster the social integration of disabled people via the partnerships of the EDF Diversiterre Foundation.

The Group also won three awards for its disability commitment in 2009: the Apajh ‘Socially Responsible Company’ Trophy, the ‘Human Capital Trophy’ and the OCIRP ‘Economic and Disabled Player’ Prize.